PM's 'my way or highway' Style Has Voters Taking to Streets
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18524424%255E36375,00.html
Accusations of nepotism, cronyism and autocracy have Thailand's
Thaksin Shinawatra considering his future, Amy Kazmin reports
THAI voters, still reeling in 2001 from the 1997 economic crisis,
gave power to Thaksin Shinawatra, a successful and self-confident
telecommunications tycoon, who pledged to use business savvy to
restore Thailand's pride and get the stalled economy back in high gear.
Thaksin, an avid reader of management theory and futurology,
promised "CEO-style" government -- fast, efficient, flexible and
responsive -- to gear up Thailand for global competition and lift up
the neglected rural poor. But despite his bold, inspiring vision --
and delivering several years of solid growth -- the Prime Minister's
future in office today is increasingly uncertain.
A year after winning an unprecedented landslide re-election --
in which his Thai Rak Thai party won three-quarters of
parliamentary seats, Thaksin is facing a serious revolt from
minority shareholders: infuriated middle-class Bangkok taxpayers
fed up with a leader who once held them spellbound have
taken to the streets demanding his resignation.
For all his professed enthusiasm for modern management tools,
Thaksin has displayed many traits of the traditional Thai-Chinese
tao kae, or business owner, ruling his dominion with an iron fist,
making most key decisions himself, installing relatives as
subordinates and tolerating little dissent.
Many in Bangkok have had enough.
"He claims to be a CEO running the country like a corporation,
but it is an archaic corporation, not a modern corporation," says
Somkiat Tangkitvanich, a policy researcher at the Thailand
Development Research Institute.
"Participation is not allowed and secrecy is normal.
He micro-manages everything, makes all the decisions
and has centralised power. He has brought in and
promoted many of his relatives and classmates to
high positions. This is certainly not modern -- it is a
kind of nepotism, cronyism."
Chris Baker, author of a book on Thaksin's career, says:
"He thinks like the head of a company, but it is a Thai-Chinese
family-type company, which is very much despotism.
You are the head of the family and the head of the business.
The responsibility is on you and all the power is with you."
The scion of an affluent, politically influential Thai-Chinese
business clan from Chiang Mai in Thailand's north,
Thaksin built Shin Corp -- Thailand's largest telecoms firm --
on an ability to secure monopolistic government concessions.
He has the politician's gift of being charming and engaging
"when he wants to be", one associate said. But in a Buddhist
culture where polite manners, humility and calm temperaments
are highly valued among good society, Thaksin has often
appeared brash and domineering, frequently using coarse
language to attack and insult his critics and political rivals.
"He doesn't like being contradicted," said one Thai business
executive. Once when a cabinet meeting was broadcast live
on television, many Thais were aghast to see the premier
lecturing his ministers, who were submissively taking notes.
Civil servants complain he actively interfered with the
bureaucracy and the army, polarising institutions.
Thaksin has also sought to control the airwaves as no elected
Thai leader has done before. Until recent weeks,
most dissenting voices were purged from television and radio,
while the premier's pronouncements were aired.
And despite his public pledges to take a ruthless,
uncompromising stand against graft, many Bangkok
taxpayers have long been unhappy at his apparent
willingness to tolerate pervasive corruption in his
administration. He also dismissed allegations of
conflict of interest, as his administration repeatedly made
decisions that benefited Shin Corp, which he and
his wife handed over to their two eldest children
before he took office.
Thaksin, who holds a PhD in criminal justice from
Sam Houston State University in Texas, has also treated
his electoral mandate as a blank cheque, expressing
contempt for constitutional checks and balances.
After he was acquitted of an asset concealment charge
in 2001, he publicly questioned why 15 judges should
have authority over a popular elected leader.
Simmering public resentment at the Prime Minister's
often abrasive style, and his failure to live up to his promises
of clean government, finally erupted after the Shinawatra family's
73billion baht ($2.6billion) tax-free sale of their 49 per cent
stake in Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets, accusing
Thaksin of helping his family to dodge taxes and sanctioning
the sale of strategic assets to the arm of a foreign government.
"It is his personality that has triggered such vituperation,"
said a foreign market analyst. "He doesn't tolerate any views
but his own. It is 'my way or the highway' with him, and that
upsets a lot of people. Why has there been this explosion over
the Shin Corp deal? It is pent-up resentment against this
high-handedness. If he had been a humble person,
I think more of his foibles and faults would have been tolerated."
Confronted with heavy criticism of the Shin Corp deal,
Thaksin dissolved parliament and called for an April 2
snap election, betting that with his massive rural support
he could easily win a referendum on his leadership,
silencing his critics in Bangkok.
But with opposition parties boycotting the polls, Thaksin
faces the spectre of an inconclusive election that could
lead to a constitutional crisis.
And as he contemplates his options amid growing calls for
his resignation, more than his political survival is at stake.
Thaksin's rivals have suggested they would like to freeze
the Shinawatra family's assets, while Shin Corp and its past
dealings are investigated, a major threat to his family that
gives the Prime Minister a strong incentive to hang on in
power. Even without this looming risk, Thaksin himself
would be loath to give in to his enemies by stepping down.
Still, some Thais suggest Thaksin might be able to take a
temporary break from politics, then return. That might give him
a chance to look back at his own recommended reading list,
which includes the book, Why CEOs Fail.
"He told his cabinet that the main reason CEOs failed is
that they don't listen to people," recalls policy researcher
Somkiat. "He doesn't seem to realise that he hasn't conformed
to what he has been preaching."
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